Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

 

I wanted my music magazine to look as  professional as possible, and I wanted it to look like I could imagine seeing it on a newsstand. However, I also wanted it to look extremely innovative - especially, after my media teacher said it would be very difficult to make your magazine innovative and appealing at the same time. After looking at my finished preliminary task I decided that it was a good base to build upon, as I had followed rather conventional magazines in making it. Thus, I could see many areas that I wanted to improve on as I wanted to do things differently in my final piece. This was the main reason I found my preliminary task useful, because it sparked my imagination, and gave me something to refer back to for each aspect of my magazine, so I could see how it didn’t look professional and do the opposite I did for the preliminary so that Obscure would look better.

 

Overall, I have learnt that this has been an amazing experience, although very stressful to uptake all the different roles. However, taking up all these roles allowed me to create a magazine the way I wanted it to look - to use my vision.  I definitely did not want to copy another magazine. I have learnt though that for a music magazine to be truly successful it requires a team of different roles to produce it. Another important thing that is needed for the production of your magazine is making surveys, which is difficult as you have a clear vision in your head but opinions from your peers are required. Furthermore, the colour scheme you use is very significant - if you are aiming your magazine at both genders, make sure you use colours that are associated with both genders! That was my mistake; when I asked people on my survey which social groups they thought my magazine portrayed, they mostly said female, when really my magazine was unisex. In my personal opinion, I think people just don't realise how influential the colour pink has become in the worlds of fashion and design - particularly millennial pink, a shade that is so timeless, yet very 'now.'

Harry Styles, for example, seems to challenge the belief over the colour of pink as he predominantly uses the colour for his album art:

In terms of technology and editing, it is important that you take time editing your pictures and removing your backgrounds etc. as you do have a particular target audience that you are wanting to aim your magazine at.

 

In the media world, there are many professional roles in making a music magazine, and these were the ones I was responsible for:

 

1. Journalist - who would interview special guests and then write the article on them. This was most likely my favourite part as my ambition is to become a music journalist and this allowed me to experience what it would be like. However, it was rather tricky writing about someone you made up in your head based on a friend who modelled for you.

 

2. Photoshoot director - this person directs the photographer, is in charge of the costume and makeup artist, ensures that everything ran smoothly on the shoot, and that everything was risk assessed. For this role, I decided that I wanted my magazine to wear all leather clothing and to have a guitar. Overall, this role was quite easy, as my friend is rather 'rock' anyway and she made the images look really effective.

 

3. Art director/ editor -  they would handle the designing of the magazine, and would give directions to the photographer and head of the shoot so that the model is portrayed in the way that they want, to fit with the style of magazine they have planned. I tackled this role by doing surveys and summarising what the target audience want in an Editor's note on the contents page.

 

4. Photographer - take pictures of the model. This role gave me quite a lot of accuracy when it came to shooting images, as I wanted to have both candid and staged images. In the end, my favourite picture was when the model was not looking at the camera.

 

5. IT director - this person will work closely with the art director to construct the magazine. This role was very enjoyable for me as it allowed me to make my own vision.